ATLANTA – Georgia Power and MeadWestvaco are joining forces to help conserve the environment around Goat Rock Lake and streams that run into the Chattahoochee River in Harris County, Georgia and Lee County, Alabama.

Georgia Power and MeadWestvaco have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will help the environment through joint implementation of forestry management programs. The program will help maintain stream buffer habitat quality, protect aquatic habitat in the area and improve water quality. The MOU is part of a comprehensive resource enhancement proposal for Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regulated relicensing.

Georgia Power is currently involved in the relicensing process of the Middle Chattahoochee Hydro project that includes Oliver, North Highlands and Goat Rock dams. The companies’ joint program was developed in response to riverkeeper organizations interests in watershed protection.

Both companies currently work to protect the environment on adjacent lands they own and manage. This recent partnership will allow Georgia Power and MeadWestvaco an opportunity to work together to implement forestry and land management practices and to conserve the natural environmental and aesthetic qualities of the lands which adjoin the Goat Rock Lake and Mulberry and Wacoochee Creeks.

Both companies have agreed as follows:

- To implement best management practices for forestry management as recommended by the Georgia and Alabama State Forestry commissions to conserve those drainage areas;

- To maintain a minimum of 100 feet of streamside management zones on those lands owned and managed by either party, both inside and adjacent to the Goat Rock project boundary that borders Mulberry and Wacoochee Creeks, and to minimize all soil disturbing activities within these areas (Only Georgia Power land and management activities will be under Federal Energy Regulatory Commission jurisdiction.);

- To maintain a minimum 100 foot buffer on those lands owned and managed by either party which adjoin the shoreline of the Goat Rock Lake, whether that buffer is provided wholly by MeadWestvaco or Georgia Power or jointly with each other.

“This partnership truly reinforces Georgia Power’s commitment to the environment,” said George Martin, senior environmental specialist. “Most importantly, it allows us to work with MeadWestvaco, learn from their forestry and environmental programs and work together to make the lakes and streams healthier for years to come.”

Georgia Power owns and manages the Goat Rock, Oliver and North Highlands hydro generating facilities, which collectively make up the Middle Chattahoochee Hydroelectric Project. Middle Chattahoochee is a subset of the six-facility Chattahoochee Hydro Group. Middle Chattahoochee contains approximately 68 miles of shoreline that is protected through ongoing internal shoreline management and programs such as the annual “Help the Hooch” Georgia River Clean-Up community project. Georgia Power also works on aquatic habitat conservation by working with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources on monitoring fish population, diversity sampling and periodic drawdowns to enhance fisheries habitat.

“As a company, we have entered into several MOU’s to conserve environmental quality,” said MeadWestvaco’s Regional Lands Manager John Quillian. “This partnership is another example of our environmental commitment and is representative of the working relationships we find in the Chattahoochee Valley area, not only with business, but also with the environmental and educational interests in our community.”

MeadWestvaco Corporation, headquartered in Stamford, Conn., with annual sales of approximately $8 billion, is a leading global producer of packaging, coated and specialty papers, consumer and office products and specialty chemicals. The company operates in 33 countries, serves customers in approximately 100 nations and employs more than 30,000 people worldwide. Using sustainable forestry practices, MeadWestvaco owns and manages 3.4 million acres of forests.

Georgia Power is the largest subsidiary of Southern Company, one of the nation’s largest generators of electricity. The company is an investor-owned, tax-paying utility, serving customers in 57,000 of the state’s 59,000 square miles. Georgia Power’s rates are more than 15 percent below the national average and its 2 million customers are in all but six of Georgia’s 159 counties.